Sitting is Deathly!

This past month I have been driving a ridiculous amount of miles helping my parents move into a new house. This equates to a whole lot of sitting with very minimal range of motion in my hips for a long duration of time. After each drop off or pick up, I would spend ten to fifteen minutes stretching my legs and trying to get some mobility out of my hips before another hour of tightness could occur. This combined with heavy lifting of furniture and boxes lead to my body screaming at me each night. Imagine not warming up or doing any soft tissue work and then trying to squat 80% of your 1RM over and over again. (I really hope none of you are doing this). Well after a final drive today sitting in the 101S traffic, I have to let the world know that sitting will be the death of us.

Technology has rapidly developed in the past few decades and it has made many things "easier" for people. And although I love playing Angry Birds and being able to check ESPN every second, we have been forced into a chair or desk in order to operate this technology. And if that isn't the case, then you end up at home on your couch back on your butt.  

In most jobs where you are required to work at a desk, people sit in a chair at a 90 degree angle (or less) and reinforce bad movement (or lack of). This angle of sitting is followed by constant flexion of the hips, a kyphotic spinal position and weakened scapular stabilizers. All of which may be the reason for your "low back pain" or "bad posture." To top it off we come home from these jobs, in a car where we are sitting, eat dinner at a table where we are sitting and make a jump right for the couch where we are sitting. It is a brutal cycle that will increase pain or discomfort and sooner or later get you off your butt to a gym or therapy office. So lets figure out some solutions to getting off your butt and opening up those hips earlier rather than later.

First, how about simply moving around? Maybe taking a walk, going for a hike, riding your bike, whatever you enjoy that gets you moving around. You will burn more calories than you do sitting and will increase your mobility from moving.

Or think about this. A friend of mine from Sparta Performance Science, has refused to sit when he is at his desk using his computer! Instead he is in a half kneeling position with a pad under his knee opening up his hips while he is working! Now he is able to continually keep his hips open and decrease his sitting time. What a thought? Getting a light stretch while you do your desk work.

I understand after a long day of work sitting and relaxing, but move around and experience working muscle actually at work! We were created to move and explore the Earth by using our bodies. You are taking advantage of the gift of movement that not everyone has access to. So instead of looking at pictures of the places you want to be, experience it first hand and take yourself there. 

Grip and Forearm Exercises

Each week I want to provide a small set of exercises to assist in certain muscle groups of the body. I truly believe that education of movement is vital for any strength coach and athlete looking to better themselves or their players. Today I want to focus on grip and forearm strength. Now, this does not always have to be about power development because speed work can also be implemented into forearm exercises.

Grip strength plays an important role for many athletes, but it is very commonly overlooked in many sports. Some obvious sports where you could see the importance is in baseball, hockey and tennis because they all have some element of an object in hand. But athletes who are on a strength program (hopefully all of them) will need grip strength in most of their weight room exercises. I have began to notice clients who are unable to perform a lift or consecutively finish a fixed amount of reps because they have little to no grip strength. In the following I offered a few exercises that will improve grip strength and avoid or fix the problem I have seen. These exercises can be used in a circuit or implemented into your own complexes. (This can also be applicable for tactical strength and conditioning).

Here are a few exercises you can perform to increase your grip/forearm strength.

Exercise	Reps	Sets
Tennis Ball Squeeze	20	3
Farmer’s Carry	50 m walk	3
Wrist Curl/Extension	10 each arm	3
Towel Pull/Chin Ups	6-10	3

The Tennis Ball Squeeze can be done 1 hand at a time or both hands depending on what is available to you. I use this exercise for speed work to get all 20 reps done as fast as possible or slowly and squeeze with 2 second contractions.

The Farmer’s Carry can be done 1 hand or both hands at a time. I would recommend starting with 2 hands if you have never done these before in order to have more stability. Dumbbells are a great choice for this exercise, but they can also be done with weight plates.

Wrist Curl/Extension can be done 1 hand at a time or both using a dumbbell. If using both hands, be careful not to let one hand dominate the majority of the load lifted (which is why I go 1 at a time).

Towel Pull/Chin Ups do not solely focus on forearm strength, but I have found it helpful to add this element to pull ups in order to work on your grip strength. If you are efficient in your movements to be able to perform repetitive chin ups or pull ups then this is something you might add to your program. Throw a small towel over each end of the bar and grab the towel like you would a drink.

My First Session

My strength and conditioning journey started when I was in junior high looking to get stronger. I would lift and run as much as I could whenever I could. When I started to create my own programs for myself I would see something on TV or hear about something a famous athlete was doing and mimic their workout. When I began to train with friends and teammates I would want to impress them with a cool exercise or workout that left me gassed at the end. It wasn’t until I took a strength and conditioning class in college that I began to learn more about program design and the variables involving a great program. However, I soon got caught up in trying to create the perfect program for my first clients. I remember thinking it would set the tone for the rest of my life and my career was on the line. First of all, this was a school project in which the clients volunteered; there was no guarantees on either end and it was the perfect setting for a trial program. But of course I stressed myself out and I spent the entire week before my first session changing my first workout a hundred times. I thought “There has to be something that will make my program perfect and I can’t seem to find the exact exercise or the exact order or recovery that I need”. Thankfully I had a few mentors who were able to guide me in the right direction and allow me to trust the knowledge that I had. Once I was able to leave my program untouched and go with what I had, I was able to find some calmness going into my first session with my new clients. I soon found out that my program would be altered from the start. I remember having this elaborate complex of exercises that would surely make my clients stronger on the first day. My first client told me he had rolled his ankle two hours before the session and could not put a whole lot of pressure on it. And there went my program out the door! I had to quickly think of alternative exercises for my client to do while still focusing on coaching the additional exercises for my other client. This was a blessing and a curse.


Many coaches may claim to have the perfect program, but it is more of a template than a permanent design. We are all uniquely created and respond to any set of variables different from the next person. This is why we must be intentional about our coaching and learning as we work in this profession. Being able to recognize and correct movement patterns should be our main focus, rather than making sure our athlete hits all of the repetitions and sets. We are coaches who work with people, and not people who read numbers and words to others.


Remember that even the greatest strength coaches had to start somewhere and the only way to get better is experience. I have learned so much by observing all different types of classes: elite performance, women’s fitness, youth play time, senior core conditioning and many more. Do not be afraid to ask questions because this industry is always growing and adapting. If you are in the beginning of your coaching/training journey start with this idea: create a program with several movements that you understand and can coach well. It is ok not to have the most elaborate training programs with 50 plus exercises on them. You will find better results for your clients and athletes if you stick to what you know. As you ask questions and learn more you will be able to piece together your workouts in a more effective way. I am still learning to do this every day and am thankful for working in a place where my superiors are willing to teach me and help me along the way.

In the end my first session did not go as I had planned. However, when the session had ended my clients were very happy with the way things went. So I semi-camly asked, in what way they thought it went well because in my perspective I had not gone through every single exercise according to my "perfect program!" They told me they appreciated how I was able to give alternative exercises to accommodate the injury, but more so enjoyed my personality and willingness to work with them. There is much more to coaching and training people than a well thought out program. You must show people you care, before they care about what you know.